Mapping the Need for Home Visiting Across and Within States

Approximately 18 million pregnant women and families could benefit from home visiting nationally, but there are not enough resources to serve everyone. It is also unclear if all participants would benefit equally from services.

This NHVRC brief delves into measures of need to help readers identify families and communities with much to gain from home visiting services. It focuses on two broad areas:

• Maternal and child health indicators, including prenatal care, birth outcomes, and child safety
• Family characteristics, including income level, maternal and child age, parental education, and marital status

The NHVRC team pulled national data from its Data Supplement to the 2017 Home Visiting Yearbook to display how readers can use individual indicators and a composite index to look at need across states. Readers can also find a framework for measuring need in their own communities, including a list of potential data sources available at county and other substate levels.